Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-27
INTER STATE COMMERCE.
How Soma Railways Have Been Built
and Msnaged-Shall the Desired
Supervision Be by the
state Of sthe Federal Government Les
! SONS fssarDed from Experiences Respect
ling the Regulation OF Rates.

To the Editor of the New York Star.
a railway is an industrial monopoly. II
there are shippers or travellers so placed
between two railways, or e railway and
+iysateFwsy, that in the price of service
Z they can play off one against the other,
they are The exceptions that prove the
rule. Therefore d railway requires, in
the interest of the public, constant super
vision by the state, not only in the inter
est of life and limb, but to protect the
public against unjust rates ard unreasOn-
able preferences aud determinations. The
two classes railways and shippers-are
to be supervised, snd the masses pro-
! tected against tae classes. The only
question I have endeavored to consider
land present, relates to which govern
ment, state or federal, shall attempt that
supervision.
II at the end of sixty years of expe-
rience in authorizing, building and operat-
ing railways there were no rGilways-if
all that now exist were suddenly lifted up
into the sky and disappeared in thin air
we could proceed IN building railways
more wisely than did our predecessors.
The earliest railway in this country, as
in England, were ON the plan Of laying
down rails on which any one could run
engines and cars, paying tolls, as turn
pixies were used. The earliest restraint
on unjust and excessive tolls or rates
was maximum, not Of rates for use or
service but Of net profits or dividends to
the sharc-ownerS, accompanied by the
! condition that the state could buy the
property at g valuation. The usual
maximum was 10 per cent. But our pre-
deCessors could not foresee that when the
maximum had been reached the owners
could pay less regard to the public, would
not increase the business and so reduce
the rates.
In the beginning there was popular
prejudice against allowing railway com
( psnies 70 condemn q right of way. 1t YVES
decreed that taking property for rail
way was taking it fer public use. Rail
ways avoided the states acting under such
prejudice.
y change began as early as 1850
Instead Of checking the construction of
new railways, the towns, villages, cities
and states did all they could do TO pro
mote toair construction. General laws
made easy the formation CT railway com
1 pan;as; states sud counties aided in the
procurement OF carital, tie courts eX-
ercised little control over the do!ngs Of
railway managers; if they could "5y
hook or crook" .btsir the needed
money railway promoters were per-
nj ted by the state TO build rail-
ways and play havoc with cOnfding in
vestOrs wherever they pleased. Every
locality wished a railway. Promotion,
not prevention, Of railway building was
the rule. The railways soon began 10 see
! hat VI OF +be-y I'M n
volume Of business and I long haul,
rather than inCrt ased mileage rates
Rates began TO be made to develop
business and were adapted to what the
thing to oe carried would bear. II was
seen that the rates for different articles
diminished with the value of the article,
and that logs and stone would not bear
as high a rate as household furniture and
stetuaTy, and that the risk of carrying
the latter was greater. The railways,
managed on the new theories, invited
foreign immigration, bridged rivers,
pierced mountains, traversed prairies,
opened the wilderness to civilization,
united men and founded states.
Another change in regard to railways
began ell over the world in I870.72. Up
to that date, everything was done that
could be done by governments to in
duce investors to put their money into
railways. But fifteen years ago the
tide began to turn. The shippers, and
the ushers of railways, came to the front.
1t was q worldwide movement on the
same lines. Railway commissions were
set on foot in England; state ownership
was tried elsewhere in Europe; the gran
gers leaped TO light in our western states.
The source and impulse Of the movement
was general feeling that railways made
too much money by excessive rates, that
The rates were irregular, and that the dis
ordinations were unjust. The real
truth was that railways had been built
and farmers had gone westward too rap
idly. There was temporary Cverproduc-
tiOn on al sides. The price of the 8Tti-
Giles produced by farmers had fallen. IN
less the railways reduced their rates the
farmers would be bankrupt, and If the
railroads did reduce they would be bank
rupt. There WsS g loss and not profit
to be faced The railways had no doubt
been built recklessly, and managed
abominably under the system of special
rates ard rebates At competitive points
the railways in effect gave bounties to
shippers, and at non-competitive
points they behaved ike brig
ands The farmers naturally had
sthe sympathy OF legislators. Granger
states were active in enaCting laws fixing
rates, which laws the Supreme court st
Washington upheld as constitutional, but
which stopped railway building. Then
the farmers were in another trouble, and
Potter and Granger laws were repealed.
The natural laws of trade and investment
were too strong for the artificial laws of
states. What mas since happened is easily
recalled to ones memory. The food
gates Of railway building have been re-
opened with the abandonment of that
hostile legislation, and the substitution
of milder form of supervision. The re-
suit has been excessive railway construc-
ton, cheapened cost of surface, cUt-throat
competitor, secret rates and rebates, un-
just determinations, pools and finally
combinations, eliminating in enormously
efreduced rates everywhere, aad especially
for the long haul, which is the interstate
haul. Then and now comes the inter
ference by the federal government, in
Spired not so much by purpose and hope
OF reducing the price of the long inter-
state haul as of reducing the price of the
short haul. Oddly enough, the south, with
cheap bulky articles, spsrsely settled
country and few cities-all needing the